Ta-da!

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, I'm with The G on this one. Besides, what would motivate a magician or
anyone else to say "Thank you!" to the audience at that particular point -
immediately before the climax - in his act?

-Wilson


On 2/28/06, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at umr.edu> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Ta-da!
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>     "Ta-da!" imitates the two notes played by the band as the introduction
> to something dramatic/new/exciting.
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
> > ----------
> > From:         American Dialect Society on behalf of Landau, James
> > Sent:         Tuesday, February 28, 2006 12:14 PM
> > To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject:           Ta-da!
> >
> > A coworker of mine speculates that "Ta-da!", an expression used by
> magicians about to reveal the end-results of a trick (as opposed to
> "hocus-pocus", used to initiate the audience's perception of a trick),
> > is from the Hebrew "toda" (thank you) or "toda raba" (great thanks).  He
> points out that many vaudeville performers were Jewish and thereforefamiliar
> with at least a few words of Hebrew.
> >
> > Any comments?
> >
> >          - James A. Landau
> >
>
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